The song,
"The
Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol.
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to
practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol
as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning:
the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the
Church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious
reality which the children could remember. To fit the number scheme,
when you reach number 9, representing the Fruits of the Holy Ghost, the
originator combined 6 to make 3, taking the 6 fruits that were similar:
the fruit in each parenthesis is the that was not named separately.
There are actually Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost.

The "True
Love"
one hears in the song is not a smitten boy or
girlfriend but Jesus Christ, because truly Love was born on Christmas
Day. The partridge in the pear tree also represents Him because that
bird is willing to sacrifice its life if necessary to protect its young
by feigning injury to draw away predators.